Asian Art Sales in Hong Kong Fetch Record $138M

Vol. XXXII, No. 6                                                                                                                Raj S. Rangarajan

NEW YORK—Sotheby’s four-day series of auctions in Hong Kong in early October realized its highest-ever total of $138.15 million and created seven new records.

Auctions included Chinese ceramics, Chinese modern and contemporary art, paintings, arts of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), watches, jewelry and early Ming Buddhist bronzes from the Speelman Collection.

One of these—a gilt-bronze figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, mark and period of Yongle (1403-25)—sold for $15.03 million, setting a world record for any Chinese work of art. Just last month experts noted a decline in New York sales of classical art such as Buddhist sculptures (ANL,10/17/06, p. 1)

The Oct. 7 auction of works from the Speelman Collection took $41.82 million. Commenting on the sale, Robin Woodhead, CEO of Sotheby’s Europe and Asia said, “I am delighted to witness another record auction in Hong Kong confirming that Hong Kong is one of the three key auction centers in the world.”

The modern and contemporary Chinese art category recorded $21.93 million. In the Chinese contemporary art category, which totaled $10.6 million, an oil on canvas, Danshui, by native Taiwanese artist Chen Chengbo (1895-1947), was acquired by a private Asian buyer for $4.49 million at three times the presale estimate of $1.29 million, creating an auction record for any Chinese painting. Several minutes of intense competition between two bidders on the phone and by two more in the saleroom preceded the sale.

Commented Evelyn Lin, deputy director and head of Chinese contemporary art and specialist in charge of the sale: “Chengbo’s depiction of Danshui was his favorite subject,” adding that the whereabouts of only three such works by the artist are known.

Buddha, 1971, an oil on board by Ding Yanyong (1902-78), also set a record when it was picked up by a private Asian bidder for $737,651. Henry Howard-Sneyd, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and Asia and managing director of Sotheby’s Asia and Australasia, later observed that “the record-breaking sale demonstrates the continued strength and growth of the market and validates the strong results achieved in New York three weeks ago.”

In another category covering Chinese contemporary art, the sale total reached $11.33 million. A record was set for Zhang Xiaogang (b. 1958) when his oil-on-canvas Big Family Series No. 15, 1998, took $1.12 million from a collector. Night Revels Series No. 4, 2006, a painting byWang Huaiqing (b. 1944) was acquired for $5.49 million by a private Asian buyer.

The fine Chinese paintings category (including the Vermillion Pavilion collection of Mr. and Mrs. Fei Chengwu) fetched $15.10 million. Xu Beihong’s “Zodiac Animals,” 1946, an album of 12 leaves in ink and color on paper, fell for $708,764; and Fu Baoshi’s “Landscape and Figures,” 1946, an album of ten leaves in ink and color on paper, was sold for $650,990. Sotheby’s specialist-in-charge C.K. Cheung reports that the sale “attracted almost 500 bidders,” adding, “the results reflected the strength of the market for fine Chinese paintings, particularly works by established artists that are fresh to the market.”

Sales of fine Chinese ceramics and works of art totaled $13.03 million. Top prices were obtained for a celadon-glaze vase with Ram’s Heads, with the seal and mark of the Qianlong period (1736-95), which went for $1.12 million; and a Yongzheng (1723-35) celadon moonflask, which Eskenazi Ltd., London, acquired for $993,612.

Soaring Art Season in New York

(Opening of Atul Dodiya’s exhibition at Bodhi Art) (Photo: Michael Toolan)



Arts and Culture November 2006

Raj S. Rangarajan

New York: If it’s fall in New York its time for art shows and auctions, cheese-wine receptions and film festivals. Around this time Manhattan picks up a buzz about art and paintings, about medium and texture, style and angle, and of course expression and enigma.

Art is ubiquitous. Everyone has an opinion on art – it’s like advertising or politics. We have heard the old saw – modern art is not to be seen, it’s to be discussed. The person who mused that would undoubtedly revise his/her opinion now after seeing the phenomenal variety and quality of art being created in several parts of the world including those by contemporary Indian artists. And like so many things “Indian” (read South Asian) these days, ranging from BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) to Bollywood to Indian food, contemporary Indian art is fetching high prices at auctions in art capitals of the world.

At Asian art sales in September auctioneers Sotheby’s and Christie’s had a field day with contemporary Indian art selling at record-setting prices. Francis Newton Souza’s (1924-2002) two oil paintings on board – Man and Woman and Man with Monstrance each sold for US$1.36 million. Eighty-one-year-old Tyeb Mehta’s Untitled painting went for US$1.13 million, abstractionist Vasudev Gaitonde’s (1924-2001) “Atul Dodiya’s Mirage, 2002 sold at $216,000 and Jitish Kallat’s Ancestral Fruit on a Siamese Twine, 1998 was bought by a private Indian collector for $72,000. Dodiya is 47 and Kallat is merely 32.

To a question to Kallat regarding what the title of his creation meant, the artist said, "Ancestral Fruit on a Siamese Twine was part of a series of works I made in the late 90s that dealt with autobiographical themes often evoking ideas of family ancestry. My family comes from the Southern state of Kerala but I was born and raised in Mumbai. That degree of separation was often explored in art works; the elephant became symbolic of ancestry/Kerala and these ideas were put forth through cryptic titles and image constructions that made the viewer play detective. The paintings wore the look of a weather-beaten wall creating a friction between the private act of diary writing and encrypting them to take a dimension of public wall.”






Art-lovers admiring paintings
(Photographer: Michael Toolan)

Two Mumbai artists Atul Dodiya (right) and Jitish Kallat (left) had an inspiring one-on-one talk recently at Bodhi Art Gallery in artsy Chelsea district in the city at a standing-room-only reception on Dodiya’s art, style, motivations and why he draws what he draws. While at residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute in late 2005, Dodiya created The Wet Sleeves of My Paper Robe (Sabari in Her Youth: After Nandalal Bose) a body of work that includes 31 new works on paper. Dodiya emphasized how “my intention as an artist is to create a narrative and a continuity, otherwise it will stay as an illustration.” Dodiya said, “from the age of 11, I wanted to be a painter and artist and initially I used to copy masters such as Matisse and Picasso to get a feel for their work.” To a question on how to appreciate art, Dodiya said, “there are times when you don’t have to explain perception of a work of art, it just hits you.” Bodhi Art, which has a presence in Mumbai and New Delhi, opened in Singapore in 2004 and in New York this September.

About TamarindArt:
TamarindArt is open to the public as a museum-gallery. Inaugurated in 2003 by celebrated contemporary Indian artist M.F. Husain, it is owned by prominent collectors Mr. and Mrs. Kent Charugundla. TamarindArt Gallery’s main focus is to introduce Indian contemporary art to a larger audience and to create a platform for intellectual dialogue between senior and younger artists. It has become one of the foremost centers for contemporary Indian art in the United States, with the collective experience of over fifty years. Since its opening, the Charugundlas have held numerous private exhibitions, including the works of renowned Indian artists M. F. Husain, F.N. Souza, Ram Kumar, S. H. Raza, Vasudev S. Gaitonde, and Bal Chhabda, whose work was shown in New York for the very first time.

At the Tamarind Art Gallery that opened in 2003 in mid-town New York, 78-year-old Akbar Padamsee’s nudes and abstract art were on display with a catchy title – Lines of Distinction, Strokes of Genius. Padamsee’s treatment of the human form conveys both pain and tenderness and makes his art stand out. His nudes seem to yearn for attention in a subtle yet provocative manner – if that’s possible.

Earlier in May-June, art collectors and gallery owners of Tamarind Art Gallery, Kent and Marguerite Charugundla hosted “50 years of artist Bal Chhabda” a formidable figure in the art business harkening back to the Progressive Artists Group made famous by the likes of M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Krishen Khanna, Raza, Gaitonde and Alkazi.

When asked about his motivation to become an artist, Chhabda, who is 80-plus confided, “I am actually an accidental artist, my first love was to produce and direct movies in Bombay, which he did in 1950 with his film “Bal Chhabda Exhibits at TamarindArt


Art collector (left) with Natvar Bhaskar (New York artist)



New York, New York - TamarindArt Gallery, located in the heart of midtown Manhattan, presented a show of legendary contemporary Indian artist Akbar Padamsee.

Akbar Padamsee is a commanding presence in the contemporary Indian art movement, his imaginative work replete with metascapes and figures splendid in their alienation and solitude. It is his treatment of the human form, which conveys both pain and tenderness that makes his art visually stunning and intellectually provocative.

“Padamsee’s devoted attention to form, volume, space, time, and color makes his works both real and transcendent,” said gallery owner Mr. Kent Charugundla. It is an honor "to host a show of one of the most important ground-breaking modern artist of our time.” The exhibition featured work done in pencil and charcoal on paper as well as watercolors.

Akbar Padamsee is one of the India’s most celebrated contemporary artists. As a young artist in the 1940s Padamsee broke new ground by, “inventing modernism for India”. To create a new modernism he rejected India’s artistic traditions and looked to the contemporary art of Paris for inspiration. Padamsee lived in Paris from 1951 to 1967. Over the years Akbar Padamsee has received a number of prestigious awards and honors including, The Rockefeller Fund Fellowship in 1965, the Nehru Fellowship in 1969-70 and awarded the Kalidas Samman by the Medhya Pradesh Government for 1997-98. Akbar Padamsee has also been invited to participate in a number of important shows, including, two Venice Biennales and the Tokyo Biennale in 1959. Akbar Padamsee lives and works in Mumbai.



Resources:
www.bodhiart.in
www.tamarindart.com

[Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, travel and lifestyles and reviews books, films and plays for media based in New York, California, Toronto, India and Australia.]